Decades ago, Nissan made the global decision to drop the popular Datsun name from its cars and introduce the Nissan brand as the flagship name. This caused quite an uproar at the time and infuriated many dealers during the changeover.
Now, Nissan has decided to reintroduce the Datsun brand, but in a very limited and targeted way. Will this work? We’ll see.
As Chester Dawson writes for the Wall Street Journal: “It is the car that baby boomers may remember as much for its compact chic as for its slogan (‘Datsun, We Are Driven!’). Now, a new version of this storied brand may get more attention for something else: its price tag. In a bold move into the auto industry’s fastest-growing category — emerging-market countries — Nissan Motor Co. is planning a revival to this Beatles-era star that might surprise its fans. According to interviews with Nissan’s CEO, Carlos Ghosn, and other company executives, the rebooted car will appear in these countries as bare-boned as any rival has tried. And Nissan is hoping to set new lows for pricing for a global auto maker, offering the cheapest Datsun model for about $3,000 to $5,000. The lowest price is nearly a third the price of its most inexpensive car, the $8,000 Tsuru compact sold in Mexico. In revealing new details to the Wall Street Journal about the tightly controlled project, Mr. Ghosn said the company was committed to offering six Datsun vehicles, due out beginning in 2014, at a price range lower than all but a handful of smaller car makers in China and India specializing in mini autos.”
Click the vintage Datsun photo for a WSJ video.
Source: Associated Press
Thanks to KCJ for suggesting this post
I owned one in 1956. One’s enough.
LOL
I think this is a good idea for Nissan as a company. If they want to offer a super low priced car using the Nissan Brand may actually have a negative effect. Nissan after a few years learned how to build a luxury brand in Infiniti by leveraging the Nissan name while making the Infiniti vehicles different enough that the consumer didn’t think of it as a high priced Nissan. By using the Datsun name Nissan may be trying to do what they did with Infiniti, just towards a lower market and this way they don’t tarnish the Nissan brand if it fails.